Montclair State University alumna Alexa Tabbacchino has just released her debut EP, “Evergreen.” She graduated from the recording arts and production program in 2024 and has continued with that path. Tabbacchino spoke with The Montclarion about her journey and the release of the EP:
Q: How did going to Montclair and being in the Recording Arts program support your career?
A: “I will give a major shout out to Rod Shepherd. He is a recording arts and production professor, among 1 million other things that he does. He is someone who co-produced [and] recorded the EP for me, mixed, mastered, and was just a major major part in making this happen. And I will say, without ever going to Montclair, he’s someone I would not have met.”
Q: “Don’t Know When” is the first track on Evergreen and was released as a single first. Is there any reason behind that choice?
A: “Don’t Know When” is the first song I wrote that I performed in public. The rising pad and guitar intro at the top makes for a great starting sound. This isn’t usually my goal when I write songs, but I kinda hope this one plays while you’re driving in the summer with the windows down.”
Q: What is your personal favorite song on the EP?
A: “It really is such a hard pick… I do want to say ultimately I think it’s “Yellow Lab”… it’s quite bluegrassy and folky in comparison to everything else on the EP. I did that on purpose because a lot of the music that I grew up listening to from my parents was primarily those two genres, so you know the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I was thinking of them when I was making the song.”
Q: Is “Forever Intertwined” about Cristina Clare? Can you speak on that relationship and how it has helped your music career? How is singing about love more powerful than just saying “I love you”?
A: “Cristina is a gift to this world. I was nearly ready to can all of Evergreen at a point in time. Without her, I’m not sure my music would be out right now. Cristina is the most supportive and most loving person.”
Q: With songs like “Yellow Lab”, “Roam” and “Shades of Green”, your lyrics seem as though you’ve dealt with pain, but you also know healing. How are you able to get to those points of acceptance, healing and forgiveness?
A: “I think that in terms of the healing process… I’ve had a lot of people in my life lose a lot of important people, opportunities, jobs and experiences that were the driving force of their life. I just try to remind myself that even when things feel like they’re the end of the world, there’s always a way to kind of cope with that pain, and as cliché as it is, I do think that writing music is one of the top ways for me to do that.”
Q: “Shades of Green” is now available for the public to listen to. Being such a vulnerable song about such an intimate event, what does this mean to you and what do you think it means to your friend watching over you?
A: “I just can’t see myself ever writing a song that is more authentic to a person than the way that I speak about him. He lived his life in such a purely him way, which is why I say there’s no one to replace him.”
“I think playing it live and hearing it on the studio recording is very different. You have a very different emotional response to both because the studio recording is going to be the same thing every time you press play, whereas live, I’m feeling those emotions so deeply in that moment, and I’m not necessarily focusing on the vocal technique or the way the piano sounds at this specific part of the song.”
Q: At the First Mountain Music Festival, you introduced “Technicolor” by saying you didn’t approve of what’s going on in the world and if it wasn’t being recorded, you’d have more colorful words to share. So what do you want to see change? What does the world in technicolor look like for you?
A: “I think there are a lot of good people on this planet right now who are being killed and are not being seen in ways that they should be recognized.”
“I know that I, as one person, cannot change the way of the world, but I know that the support that I received from people who listen to my music and the friends and family I have who share these values— I do think there is a way for art to reach the people who need to hear it most. I think that if you are an artist who doesn’t use your voice to talk about the things going on in our world right now, it’s almost a waste of your platform. For me, it’s indicated that you don’t care and people who don’t care about good people who are being harmed— that’s a big problem to me.”
